Biotechs and docs partner with vets to find cancer cures

Posted on August 29, 2015

From FierceAnimalHealth: Mark Mamula, a professor of medicine at Yale University, created a cancer vaccine that’s designed to prompt the body’s immune system to attack tumors. It worked great in mice, but he wanted to see how it would perform in a more realistic model of human cancer, so now he has teamed up with the Veterinary Cancer Center in Norwalk, CT, to test the vaccine in dogs. Mamula hopes the insights from the dog trial will lead to a human trial in a year or so.

Mamula’s vaccine is made from synthesized tumor proteins, which are formulated into a vaccine, he told the New Haven Register. Once the vaccine enters the body, the immune system creates antibodies to fight the cancer. More than 15 dogs have been enrolled in the study, which is ongoing. “Much like a human clinic, these dogs are walking in the door with different stages of cancer,” Mamula said. “Dog cancers very closely resemble human cancers in many ways.” Read more here.